Another Build Thread You Won't Read

[Devisissy]

I know this villian arch is boring and derailing what would have been a much better build thread without it, but like Disney I have to shove my propaganda down your throats. Mostly why I am doing this is to have a record of the chain of events. It's like I have a time machine. I know what will happen and I am coming back to try to warn myself but I know how full of poo poo I am so I don't believe myself.

Steve from SC Aquariums has written me back after a long pause to let me know there is a 3 year warranty if the tank leaks. That I should just let him know if it leaks within 3 years. So we have gone from everything is normal to, when it leaks hit me up yo! I don't understand, and maybe it is me, I just learned to read 8 years ago. It's INSIDE the tank, THE BOTTOM PANE, against the BACK WALL. All these examples of normal not normal he keeps showing me are not my issue. Mine is more like the back glass is pulling away from the bottom pane. I looked at it again today. It's just not noticeable really, until it is full of water. When the tank was full it was this largish gap. So it's insanely hard to get photos of it without water. Then hard to get photos with water because of the glare of the lights and the water in general.

I am just going to roll with it, or I might hit up Waterbox. So I am down like a grand. Man I should have taken up gambling instead.

 

[twentyleagues]

I know this villian arch is boring and derailing what would have been a much better build thread without it, but like Disney I have to shove my propaganda down your throats. Mostly why I am doing this is to have a record of the chain of events. It's like I have a time machine. I know what will happen and I am coming back to try to warn myself but I know how full of poo poo I am so I don't believe myself.

Steve from SC Aquariums has written me back after a long pause to let me know there is a 3 year warranty if the tank leaks. That I should just let him know if it leaks within 3 years. So we have gone from everything is normal to, when it leaks hit me up yo! I don't understand, and maybe it is me, I just learned to read 8 years ago. It's INSIDE the tank, THE BOTTOM PANE, against the BACK WALL. All these examples of normal not normal he keeps showing me are not my issue. Mine is more like the back glass is pulling away from the bottom pane. I looked at it again today. It's just not noticeable really, until it is full of water. When the tank was full it was this largish gap. So it's insanely hard to get photos of it without water. Then hard to get photos with water because of the glare of the lights and the water in general.

I am just going to roll with it, or I might hit up Waterbox. So I am down like a grand. Man I should have taken up gambling instead.

Gambling kind of sums this hobby up in general sometimes. You can mitigate the chance sometimes but there is always possibility.

 

[Devisissy]

Gambling kind of sums this hobby up in general sometimes. You can mitigate the chance sometimes but there is always possibility.

Yeah but are there flashing lights, drunken shenanigan's, show girls, sweaty horses, and regret? Oh...

 

[JoJosReef]

Yeah but are there flashing lights, drunken shenanigan's, show girls, sweaty horses, and regret? Oh...

And you're here because...?

 

[twentyleagues]

Yeah but are there flashing lights, drunken shenanigan's, show girls, sweaty horses, and regret? Oh...

Depends on what time of the day!

 

[Troylee]

Naw I decided to just fill it and forget all about it. Steve says it's fine. He makes all the tanks in all of China, I trust him with everything. My floor, tons of coral, livestock. He says it's ok then it's ok.

He doesn’t build tanks at redsea does he?

 

[Devisissy]

He doesn’t build tanks at redsea does he?

ZING!

 

[Devisissy]

Today many things happened. I took down my Spectrapure, removed all the filters and membrane and ran some bleach through it.

Spectrapure is the most superior RODI on the market. The filters and resins are what I like to call adult level, none of this preschool coloring with broken crayons. How RODI units that are not Spectrapure look like;

With the rock work done I decided it was time to add sand. My wife was concerned that the company steals the sand from the beach and destroys the ecosystem and made sure to remind me of this the whole time I was dumping sand into the tank. I think it would be exciting to find a ring, or a twenty or an empty bag of Cheetos. I decided to mix two flavors. Flavor one is Fiji Pink. It tasted a bit metallic but the color was nice. Texture reminded me of a sugared doughnut.

Flavor 2 was "reef sand" as the bag says, but sold on BRS as "Special Grade". This flavor was more earthy, wet fish like, texture was quite gritty almost sharp as there were many shell bits. Could not tell which crustation shells came from.

I mixed these two flavors half and half, consistency kept by eyeballing.

Method for the sand was slopping it in with mee mah's good two cup measuring saucer. On account she lost her sight she will never know. I shoved it all around where I thought it was needed. To which the wife stated I needed to add more, so much for the environment.

My Spectrapure makes 95 gallons a day with a whoping 80psi, we just pull it straight out of the river there, and I will heat and add salt as we go. Heat mainly because my hydrometer I stole from Billy's moonshine shack, is temperature dependant. Otherwise I wouldn't bother.

Salt of choice is Nyos. There is no other salt on the market. This is the only one. Those others are not real salt. It's like msg free Chinese food, or that weird potassium crap mee mah had to use cause her ankles swell so bad she can't get her slippers on. Nyos is clean, mixes fast, consistent, leaves no residue, and they use Triton testing on each batch, that they stick on the label, right on the bucket. Scan the QR or as Papa calls it, witchcraft, you will get all the results without needed to p*mp out your email address to every Chinese app in the world, ahem red sea.

So that is where I am at.

 

[Devisissy]

Water is finally on. I only had three brutes that are 32 gallon. Billy and Little John stole my good 45's for used oil.

Both returns leak like a Russian u boat but I figured they would. It was cheap garbage Chinese pvc and fixtures. I'll have to sort it during my water change. Maybe plumbers tape.

Dead silent now except for the elbows on the main. Turning the gate all the way off until it poured out of the emergency then backing off was the key. I also raised both returns, so emergency is one inch under weir, main 6 below that. No sand is being sucked up either so my special blend worked.

Dumped the tetra safe start in, better than Dr Tim's, fight me. Now I get to ghost feed and wait.

And yes that is a water closet. Need a view while pooping. I mean shampoo bottles don't have internet.

 

[Devisissy]

Tank has appears to be cycled. Nitrites are right around .25. nitrates 25. No ammonia. I tossed this fat murderous snail killer in to see how he fairs. I gave him a shrimp chunk and a half an algae wafer for his sacrifice. Worst case he dies full, best case he lives full.

I have an urchin. I don't know much about them. So I'm am very unsure when to add him. For the last ten years or so he comes up to the top for an nori or silverside once a week. So I'm not worried about him starving. But not sure on a cycling tank what he will be able to handle.
Advice is much appreciated. I'd hate to kill him. Urchin and b word clown have been with me almost from the very start clown is 13. See I do have a heart.

 

[JoJosReef]

Tank has appears to be cycled. Nitrites are right around .25. nitrates 25. No ammonia. I tossed this fat murderous snail killer in to see how he fairs. I gave him a shrimp chunk and a half an algae wafer for his sacrifice. Worst case he dies full, best case he lives full.

I have an urchin. I don't know much about them. So I'm am very unsure when to add him. For the last ten years or so he comes up to the top for an nori or silverside once a week. So I'm not worried about him starving. But not sure on a cycling tank what he will be able to handle.
Advice is much appreciated. I'd hate to kill him. Urchin and b word clown have been with me almost from the very start clown is 13. See I do have a heart.

Type of urchin? Urchins don't donywell with parameter swings, so you'd want the new tank basically matching the old tank or give it a nice long acclimation when switching. I used to buy SW from my LFS, and like a dummy didn't bother checking it because, hey, I'm a big spender dropping Hamiltons on water, right? Of course it's going to be on point. After a 20% water change, urchin's spines all fall out and dies. New LFS water was >1.040sg so tank shot up to 1.035sg. Urchins are deathly afraid of change.

 

[Devisissy]

Type of urchin? Urchins don't donywell with parameter swings, so you'd want the new tank basically matching the old tank or give it a nice long acclimation when switching. I used to buy SW from my LFS, and like a dummy didn't bother checking it because, hey, I'm a big spender dropping Hamiltons on water, right? Of course it's going to be on point. After a 20% water change, urchin's spines all fall out and dies. New LFS water was >1.040sg so tank shot up to 1.035sg. Urchins are deathly afraid of change.

He is a pencil urchin. He has been living in a Tupperware with the fish for 5 months now. That little bin is algae free I can tell you that. So It's time. I will just do the whole drip drip bucket method.

 

[Devisissy]

Right on schedule we have algae.

And this murderous jerk still lives.

 

[SaltySteven]

University drop out old lady here that picked the wrong year to stop drinking. Nobody cares about my stupid tank, but here it is. My build thread. It's like losing weight, if you don't tell people you are trying to lose weight then you have no accountability and you stay fat. Right? Or something like that.

I have had this 90 gallon Custom Aquarium Brands tank and a Trigger sump for years. They were free. However they didn't come with a stand. So for years it just sat there.

At this point most everyone has tuned out. Not enough photos, too much talk. Let me tell you something if you haven't moved on. Custom Aquariums Brand tanks are U G L Y. This thing is sooooo ugly. I hate it. It's the stupidest messing thing you have EVER seen. Their overflow is stupid, the intake is stupid, the frame is stupid, their sumps are stupid. I hate this tank. However, this thing is a freaking ugly butt TANK tank. Like inch thick glass, aluminum frame, 3 inches of globbed on black silicone RTV40 in their stupid ugly thick frame. I hate this tank in equal amounts of the peace of mind I have that I could shoot a Blackhawk with 454 casull at it and probably be OK. If Custom Aquarium Brands read this, they won't, but if they do, your tanks suck and your sumps suck, and could you make your intake a little bigger and uglier? I mean it already looks like toilet waste plumbing I'm sure you could up your game and make it even uglier.

I rest my case.

If you willingly bought this tank and it's not in an office building, I would like to know what your drug of choice is and ask you to share it with me.

Why use this tank? Because it was free and knowing what I know now I would have never loaded this 200 pound chunk of silicone and toilet plumbing into my car, then this thread would have never happened, and maybe I would have a life.

First things first I removed the toilet plumbing. Since the man who bought it before me had it plumbed like a literal toilet there is only one bulkhead for a 90 gallon tank. So I am forced to use undersized overflows. Which I don't know what happened in the last 6 years, but there is like 2 companies now? So go with undersized crap that looks good or flushing toilet. So I got the Eshopp Medium. Will it clear the MASSIVE BLACK ALUMINUM 2 INCH WIDE RIM? Probably not, but that's for another post.

So the Trigger Sump is a Ruby. It was abused. Man who had it before had that bad boy straight piped like a Ford trying to run a 6 in a redneck's backyard race track. Imagine Niagara Falls. Now imagine Niagara Falls in your living room. I bet they were hoarse from all the screaming. So he cut out the acrylic. It looked like a small muskrat got caught in a trap and tried to make their way out. Or maybe not a muskrat, maybe just a dude that didn't own a Dremel and only had a chisel and a will. A will to have the world's loudest aquarium. So me being stupid decided, oh all these scratches and defects, I'll just buff them out with all this crap I have lying around the garage. Realizing about 3 hours in I'm closer to death then I have ever been, I gave up. I also decided cordless drills might not be the best for the job at hand. Maybe if Tesla had his way we would never need to charge these things.

This is what defeat looks like.

I got on the world wide web and surfed on over to Trigger and bought the same sump but the Crystal model. Now, I dunno if it's the red color or what. But there is a MASSIVE difference between a 9 year old Ruby Trigger sump and a brand new Trigger Crystal sump. There are more defects in the acrylic, nothing structural, but just ugly spots throughout. And whatever wax they use is just one giant lube mess. I had to wipe this thing down with a microfiber every time I touched it. It's got cloudiness, scratches, crazing, all sorts of garbage. But it was cheap so there is that, and it came with socks so WOO HOO!

I had this old JBJ 45 that I sort of liked, I do like some things, but learned to hate the AIO. It was always a challenge to do anything. I have man hands OK? This last crash I almost gave up. After tearing it down I found my MP10's magnet has been rusting into the tank. And the ATI test shows that. So maybe that was it who knows. I live in a tiny house so I have to make room which meant getting rid of this old tank. I put it on Facebook market place. I don't know why. Maybe because I like to hurt inside and have lost all self respect. After weeding through all the bullcrud people asking stupid questions I found a normalish person.

The guy who came to get it looked so bewildered. He had NO CLUE what he was picking up. All he knows is his wife wanted a "small" tank. He looked scared. He said, "I wasn't expecting it to be this nice, or big." It was LITERALLY in the ad. Here is what he got. For free. It's like The Ring. You remain cursed until you, oh wait if you haven't seen the movie skip this, /spoiler you have to make a copy of the video and give it to someone else. Same with tanks, I was cursed with Custom Aquariums custom crap tank, so now I have to pass it on. He is what he got.

I think he got the better deal.

So now with that gone we took all the furniture out of the room, painted, and today an engineer is putting in a 2,000 dollar beam so this giant messing glass box and aluminum frame don't fall through the floor, and then keep falling through the floor, down through the crawlspace, the ground, past the earths core, right on to the other side of the earth. So essentially I'm not protecting the aquarium, I am protecting my house from the aquarium. So next week new flooring goes in to cover this new massive beam.

I have some fish and some corals from the old tank. I threw the corals in the macro tank and they hate the Tuna Sun, cause it's not Tuna Blue so fingers crossed they don't all die one buy one. Fish and the old rock, snails and urchin live in a Tupperware. They have a window for light, a sponge filter, heater, and a skimmer. And dang it, that's what they get for the next month and a half. And they better like it.

It is the best scape I have ever done.

Equipment is two MP40's and one MP10. Yes, I ordered a new wet side. Sheesh. I got the stupid outdated Ecotech live box thingy to control them all too. Two reef breeders 24inch because I already have them so yay. Bubble magnus that came with the 90 gallon and was surprisingly not in crappy shape. My Loop DC return pump. My stand is custom because stupid Custom Aquarium Brands puts the world's largest rim on their tanks with the thickest glass ever it won't fit on a standard 90 gallon stand. It's aluminum just like the frame of the tank. I stood on it to paint. I have no idea how I am going to skin it yet. I can tell you right now it won't be with fabric, you all know who you are. Stop it.

Oh and because I am generic in life without any single unique vision or will, red with gray plumbing. JUST LIKE EVERY ONE ELSE. At this point places should just charge double for those two colors.

Stay tuned for all my failures.

Love how thorough you are

 

[Troylee]

Right on schedule we have algae.

And this murderous jerk still lives.

I call these the gang bangers of my reef.. always jacking snails for shells! Haha

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Your sarcastic title has triggered my to subscribe to this thread. Your sarcastic posts have qualified that decision.

 

[Devisissy]

Hermits killed all the snails and someone ate half the sponge filter. Awesome.

 

[907_Reefer]

Don't worry, the ugly stage will be here soon to say "hold my beer."

 

[Devisissy]

Don't worry, the ugly stage will be here soon to say "hold my beer."

We will see. I have a light dusting. The urchin ate the sponge filter in the holding tank, and took some chunks out of my skimmer that was in the holding tank. So I doubt he will allow anything to grow. Fired up the algae scrubber. Why the heck did they make it white? What a stupid idea. Also after a water change skimmer is actually skimming. Sort of. Not really. I should turn it off. Ordered some pods and a $450 lid. When I was buying the lid I was thinking back to when I had a life where I could go on vacation and out with friends. Then I woke up to me buying a 450 dollar piece of plastic. I think maybe a drug habit would be cheaper and less destructive.

 

[JoJosReef]

Friends? No reason to pooh-pooh over them. You're way past that. You're in the baller's club now. Wave that $450 lid around like a trophy and tell those so called friends to eat their avocado grain-free toast and shut up. Also, how's Thompson and his various enterprises?